DIY Project: Kitchen Island

My finished kitchen island fits right in to my kitchen.

I used these free Ana White 'Easy Kitchen Island' plans for this project, with a few small adjustments. This is the second time I've used plans from Ana White's site, and just like last time, they were brilliant! They just makes a project like this so easy! I just emailed the plans to myself, they included both a shopping list and a cut list, and headed to my local home improvement store for the necessary supplies.

Supplies, waiting to get cut.

I had most of the wood cut in the store, according to the cut list. I did end up getting a Kreg jig, something that is recommended in the instructions but that I initially though I'd skip. In the end, I'm really glad I got one, as it helped make the assembly really easy, and it will be very useful for future projects. Thanks to the Kreg, the whole piece came together start to finish in half a day, the constructed kitchen island is very stable, and all screws are completely hidden out of view.

Shelf assembly. 

I did make a few, small alteration from the original plans; I used 2x4s for the shelf support beams, for sturdier shelves, which I know will have to carry a lot of weight; I added a few inches of length overall in the bench top; I used wider boards for the bench top than the 2x6 recommended in the plans. Besides those alterations, I made it exactly after the specifications.

For the finish, I sanded the entire island, stained the top and the shelves a dark brown, and painted the base and the legs with a couple of coats of white. I topped it off with some polythyrene for shine and durability, as I wanted to be able to wipe it down.

Kitchen island, completed, waiting to dry.

It's not perfect, and noone will mistake it for a store-bought piece, but I'm actually really pleased with this project. It has vastly improved my kitchen! Previously, we had this tiny, much-too-llow, old and dingy butchers block in the center of our kitchen (that came with our rental house), and the only storage for pots and pans was the very limited space under the stove.

Shelves, shelves, and more shelves!

Now I have this massive work surface, at a great hight, plus two large shelves for storage of pots and pans! Finally, I have enough space for both cooking and storage, and the daily tetris-game of stacking pots under the stove, that used to take place each time I needed to cook, is over once and for all. I only wish I would have completed it sooner.

Cooking a massive holiday dinner was a breeze this year,
 all thanks to my new kitchen island! 

This project has taken me all year to complete, for no real good reason. I started it way back in January, and it's been put on the back burner many-a-times throughout the year, in favor of other project. I'm so happy to finally have it completed (I hate having unfinished work laying around), and I'm stoked to use it during the holiday cooking season!

Actual work only took about 3 days; one day get and cut supplies; one day for the build and sanding; and one for the paint job, with a couple of hours of actual work each day, and about $120 in supplies. Not bad for a brand new kitchen island! In addition, skill wise, this project was easy. I was able to do it, on my own with no problems, and I have absolutely zero experience doing something like this.

Kitchen island in use during the making of this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanks, Ana, for the awesome project plans!

Cost:

$122.11 in materials
~ 6 hours of work + drying time

 The kitchen island added a perfect work space to my otherwise pretty crappy kitchen.

DIY Project: Reupholster Chairs

My husband have had this table and chair set for eons. While they might not be my particular style, they are high quality and in fairly good condition. The fabric on the chairs seats , however, have started showing major signs of wear. As we currently rent, we haven't been in any hurry to replace them. Instead I've been thinking about redoing them myself for quite a while, and finally took the plunge. I've never done any furniture reupholstery before, but it was easy enough. I improvised the process, taking notes as I took the chairs apart, and then put them together again in the reverse order. Piece of cake!

Chairs, Before

I got a bunch of amazing Caitlin Wilson pillows when I redid my office last year, and ever since, I've wanted to use this gorgeous Mint Fleur Chinoise print to reupholster these chairs. Finally, finally, I pulled the trigger and ordered the fabric, in spite of its $60/yard price tag.

Source: Caitlin Wilson Textiles

I've been waiting for the fabric to arrive for what feels like eons, which makes me feel like I've been working on this project for weeks, when I in fact have not. Luckily, when the fabric actually got here, the project took about an hour and a half from start to finish, which isn't bad given the fact that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Here are my "new" chairs:

Chairs, after

I'm so glad to finally have this project completed, and I love, love, LOVE how they turned out! They've brightened up my little kitchen nook so much! I find myself repeatedly walking through the kitchen, for no reason other than to admire my pretty, new chairs.

Before/After

Fabric:

2 yards Caitlin Wilson Textiles Mint Fleur Chinoise, $120

DIY Project: Trundle Guest Bed

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently redoing my office. My old office was a pretty boring space, built for studying, and studying alone. Since I'm not in school anymore, I've wanted to evolve my space to better suit my current needs. One of them being the need for a guest bed (or, preferably, two). We're having a lot of overseas guests coming to stay this year (yay!), the first set of which are scheduled to arrive in a couple of weeks. The air mattress we usually squeeze into my office to accommodate overnight house guests basically renders the entire room useless for anything besides sleeping on said mattress, and I'm so sick of it. So, spurred on by the shrinking window of time before soon-decending guests, I started making plans for my new office.

I decided upon adding a daybed, and I really wanted a trundle for it as well, to get two twin-sized guest beds. I found tons of daybeds with trundles online, none of which I wanted in my office. Then I found this daybed at World Market, and absolutely loved it.

It was just the thing I was looking for; nice quality, solid wood, sturdy, it fits a twin mattress, and it's gorgeous. To make it even better, it was on sale, and half the price of the other daybeds I'd seen online, and those had been made of cheap composite board. While it does fits a twin mattress, it didn't come with a trundle. But I got it anyways.

Then I started hunting for a freestanding trundle, to fit underneath the daybed. Yeah... that proved to be quite the challenge. They were all either too long, too high, too short, too ugly, or too expensive. Exasperated with my Goldilocks dilemma, I though 'why not make one?'. I mean, how hard can it really be? Well, as it turns out, not very.

I used Ana White's 'Trundle for Bed or Storage' plans to build my trundle, which made the whole project ridiculously easy, since her plans include a comprehensive list of supplies needed, the tools to use, where & how to measure for a correct fit, and a complete cut-list. Perfect! One lengthy trip to my local home improvement store for supplies, and I was ready to begin.

The build was super quick and easy, and quickly followed by sanding, priming, and painting. And then the worst part, waiting. My daybed is a blueish-gray tone, which I doubted I could recreate very well, so I decided not to try. Instead I painted the trundle in this white & gray striped pattern. Then all that was left was adding the hardware. Piece of cake!

Here is my newly finished trundle:

I'm still waiting for a lot more pillows to be delivered, as well as the new mattress for the trundle (trundle is pictured with a placeholder). I got the new mattress for the daybed at Target. It's a 10" memory foam mattress, and the quality actually exceeded my expectations. It's SO COMFORTABLE, and for $200, a total steal! The mattress that will go in the trundle is another memory foam, also from Target, but it's only 6" due to the lesser clearance. It will go all the way up to the bottom of the daybed, and not leave that gap that is there now. These pictures are a bit awkwardly angled, I know. I'm trying to keep the rest of the room, which isn't done yet, under wraps still. Better pictures will come with the full office reveal.

Total Cost (not incl. mattress):

$150

It could have been made much cheaper, using cheaper wood than what I did, for somewhere between $50-$100 according to Ana White's calculations. Still, it was several hundred dollars cheaper than the cheapest store-version. So, by making this trundle myself, I got a trundle with a mattress for the same price as a store-bought, lesser quality trundle without a mattress, with very little work. Not bad.

All things considered, I am really happy with the outcome of this project. It was cheap, super quick, and really easy. I was a bit worried the trundle would look flimsy & obviously homemade, but it looks really good, and fits perfectly under my daybed. Even though it's a couple of inches shorter than the standard twin, it still fits a twin mattress with ease. Although, I'm thinking any tall friends hoping to be future house guests should call shotgun for the daybed asap.

Thanks Ana, for the excellent plans!

EDITED TO ADD:

We have gotten so much use out of this daybed/trundle combo, but the one negative I wanted to mention is that the trundle bed can't be raised, to make a double bed. It's probably not a big deal if you're using it for your kids, but a few couples that have slept over have mentioned that having their partner sleep down on the floor, out of sight, was strange, and I wish there was a way to add folding legs that would allow us to raise the trundle when in use, like some models I've seen at several furniture stores. Just something to keep in mind for anyone coming by this post in the hunt for a daybed/trundle combo. The option to raise the trundle is a great feature.